Three Forces That Shape An Investor’s Character

If anyone’s interested in building a property portfolio, they usually focus on the mechanics and the doing. The asset selection, the finance and those sorts of critical things. But we need to have a think about the psychological side of it as well—because, quite often, not a lot of people who want to successfully build their portfolio, do it. So, today, I want to chat about the three critical forces that shape a property investor’s character.

The first one is, what do you let inside of your mind?

We’ve got a few choices to make, haven’t we? For me, your thoughts affect your feelings; your feelings affect your action; and your action affects your results. So if we want to get better results, we need to go all the way back to what we’re thinking—and that starts with what you are putting into your mind. Are you someone who reads a lot of books, or are you someone who just watches a lot of mindless TV? Are you someone who listens to a lot of podcasts, or do you get most of your information from the news cycle? What about going to seminars or conferences, or do you engage in gossip with people? It’s really important that you guard what’s going into your mind. Because if it does have a profound impact on our results, we need to make sure we are protecting what we think about, and we need to protect what we feed our mind so that we can focus on positive things.

The second force that shapes our character is our relationships.

You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.

So if you want to be a successful property investor, have a think about that. Are you with people who tell you it can’t be done? Or are you with people that tell you it can be done? If you go back to alcoholic anonymous, for example, they’ve got a mantra: if you don’t want to slip, don’t go to slippery spots, which actually means: if you’ve got an addiction, don’t go to areas where you will fuel that addiction. So don’t go to the pub, or somewhere where you would get a drink easily. That’s the same for property investors—don’t go to slippery spots. If you are going to hang out with people who constantly give you feedback that it can’t be done or property investing is a scary thing; quite often these words would derail you. It would affect the character you are trying to build, in terms of building this property portfolio.

So first one is be careful of what you let in your mind. The second one is the relationships you form and the third one is all about the habits you form.

Motivation is what gets you started, but habit is what keeps you going. Jim Rohn, who is a favourite author of mine, talks about suffering one of two things:

The pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment.

This really comes from the habits you form. Because it’s not easy to get up and exercise in the morning; it’s not easy to make the right food choices; it’s not easy to put your neck out and decide you are going to be a property investor—and to do everything you need to do to get there. It requires some form of discipline, and if you don’t do that, you will have some form of regret down the track.

So my message, today, is really simple. It’s essential to guard your heart, and guard what goes on in your mind, and shape the character of who you need to become while you are building this portfolio. Because it’s not just about the money. It’s about overcoming conditions and building a portfolio that will hopefully become a legacy; not only for your children but also for your grandchildren as well. You need to build a moat around you. Like a castle that has a moat to create a last line of defence. You need to create a moat around yourself to protect your character when you’re building your property portfolio.